Q: Why haven't you mentioned the Blazers or taken a shot at Greg Oden yet? A: Because I might have an entire Blazers column in me and don't want to step on it. Stay tuned. Let's see what happens Thursday. Q: Come on ... not one shot at Oden? What about a reader e-mail? A: Fine, fine. Let's go with this one from Kyle in Chicago: "Oden came into Game 4 with 3:21 left in the third. At that point, I offered my roommate a bet: 'Will Oden pick up his next foul in less than or more than two minutes?' My roommate pounded the over. Huge mistake. Oden immediately began trying to commit fouls at both ends of the floor before finally picking one up at the 2:15 mark when the refs decided they'd had enough of the whole push-Yao-outside-the-3-point-line defensive strategy. Easiest money I've ever made. As a tribute to Mr. Oden, I spent the entire next day posting Facebook status updates such as, 'Watching Pirates of the Caribbean 2. Can't wait for the part where Greg Oden fouls Orlando Bloom,' and, 'Greg Oden just fouled the word 'Rocket' in the dictionary,' and, 'If Greg Oden goes to an electronics store, and he just looks around without buying anything, could he still commit a foul? Keep in mind, he's not buying anything.' A day well spent, if you ask me."http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/090429&sportCat=nba
Greg Oden owns Bill Simmons. Even a championship can't get him over not getting the #1 pick so Oden could become the next Bill Russell.
Well predicting Greg Oden fouls is like predicting the sun to rise in the east. He just doesn't have a grasp of what he should or shouldn't be doing. Now I will say that Greg manhandled Yao last night in the 4th and it was one of his best stretches of basketball in a long time. He moved his feet well and had great position.
Actually one thing I thought was justice last night was the fact that Yao finally got called for riding guys out of bounds just like Oden had been called for all series. The Blazer centers on the other hand, finally stopped doing that bonehead stuff and blocking their shots from behind or the side rather than bodying them.
I disagree. Chances are the electronics are manufactured in China, and that's closer than the refs will allow him to get to Yao. He receives a blocking call in the car stereo aisle.
What i love is how Oden pushes his ass into Yao to kind of front him, and has his hands/arms behind him keeping yao in place sort of, (yao is too big and slow to quickly move) so Yao grabs odens arm and kinda hooks it, and then oden gets called for the tangled up mess. It's like WTF?
Last night I caught something I hadn't noticed before... when Greg checked out and Joel checked back in, Joel immediately walked over to Yao and LEANED on him. Like, didn't put his hands on him, didn't look for where the ball was going to be inbounded, just walked over and leaned on him. Leaned most of his body weight on Yao, as if Yao was a tree. As if Joel's entire reason for being on the floor was to lean on Yao and tire him out, like an amateur wrestler does when he's got a guy underneath him in a hold and places almost his entire body weight in a leaning position to tire out the other guy and get the pin.
Does anyone think Oden has learned much this season? I see him still committing the same stupid fouls he did at the beginning of the season. He's like a foul machine out there. I'm surprised he doesn't commit a foul just walking onto the court. People say, "Oh, give him time, he'll correct all of that next year," but why can't he start correcting it now?? Where is it written that you have to make all your improvement in your second year?
I actually really like Simmons... but he's just another cynical fucking blogger that runs a muck in sports "journalism" now. "I have an entire Blazers column in me" This is a guy who said before the playoffs that Houston was the best possible matchup for the Blazers... meanwhile everyone in Portland shat their collective pants when Posey missed his free throws against the Spurs. THIS IS THE FIRST YEAR OF ABOUT A 9 YEAR RUN FOR THIS TEAM... NINE YEARS the best runs we've ever had have been about 3 year windows. Don't let these cunts drag you down. We are going to be fucking magnificent starting next season and Greg Oden will be in the middle of all of it.
Boy, I hope his article is about how he wanted us to draft Durant, keep Zach, and make a trade for Rashard Lewis, and play all of them on the court at the same time. With LMA coming off the bench. Because this is the dickcheese who always thinks he would make such a GREAT GM in the "No Balls League" because he would have the balls to make stupid moves. 2 years later, and he gets to watch Zach as a season ticket holder. Seriously, I hate Bill Simmons. He's just a lame homer who doesn't deserve to have a national column when he can't be bothered to watch much mroe than ESPN highlights outside of his own team. Also, fuck him for saying we'd haev 26 wins last year, and saying there was absolutely no reason he would want to watch Portland when they came to LA. Kisses Brandon's ass now. fuck him.
I don't get why people hate Oden so much-he missed a whole year of basketball, and is recovering from microfracture surgery, as well as having to adjust to the NBA style of play. People are holding him to the super high standard for some reason. Funny, I don't see the same standard being applied to Andrea Baragnani or Andrew Bogut, both #1 picks who are mediocre AT BEST. Maybe its because Greg looks like he played on Dr Naismiths '95 all star team (thats 1895, BTW) lol
It doesn't help that our big man coach has been sick all year. When Lucas came back to the bench, Oden seemed to make his biggest strides, then Lucas was gone again, and there seemed to be a regression in Oden's game. I love Lucas, but at some point they need to do what's best for the team and maybe commit to a big man that could be around Greg all the time.
Bitter Bill strikes again. I seem to recall a time in a previous millenium when Bill Simmons was occasionally funny. I could be wrong. That was so long ago, I may be confusing him with Richard Simmons. Now he's just a big whiner with an Oden fixation. BNM
I think this absolutely nails it on the head. Maurice Lucas being healthy all year and working non-stop with Oden would have made an immense difference in the kid's game. That's why I'm so looking forward to this summer as being the beginning of the "championship window". Roy and Aldridge will be PISSED at losing in the first round. Oden will have an entire summer healthy, and to work on his low-post game. Outlaw, Frye, and Bayless will be packaged with draft picks to bring in a Chauncy Billups-style point guard and hopefully a quality, blue-collar backup to LaMarcus. Sergio remains to anchor the second unit. 60+ wins next year? It's not out of the question.
